January 17th 2007

Walking Time 5:50 hours, 2:30 hours, 3:00 hours / Altitude Difference 4600 - 5896 - 4600 - 3100 m / Temperature night 3° C, summit -10° C, noon 10° C, late afternoon 21° C  / 1 hour Hail, 2 hours Rain / Altitude sickness: I had very much difficulty in breathing + a headache

We left Barafu Camp at precisely 12:25 am. How and where  our adventure would end nobody knew – yesterday hadn’t been very encouraging. Wearing thermo underwear, winter jackets, spatter dashes, gloves, a headband and on top of that a headlamp and over that a woolen cap (to keep the batteries warm) we walked out into the darkness - Tina, Deusi, a porter and I. We passed many other climbers and at the beginning we were all doing fine. The path was very steep and was yet to become steeper (on our way back down I saw that the angle was more than 45°!). After climbing about 100 meters the path was totally snow covered – not many footprints to be seen. I thought about Michel’s climbing irons coming in handy – you know, the ones he didn’t have with him either… It hit me again after 1 ½ hours  - the altitude sickness. This time I didn’t get a headache (well, not immediately). This time I just couldn’t breathe anymore. I walked 10 steps and had to stop to catch my breath. I started panting and panting and still walked onwards. My porter took my backpack after Deusi had told him to – I didn’t oppose – how could I? Tina didn’t have any signs of anything! She always asked me if I needed some water or wanted a muesli bar. She was worried about me. I told her that as long as it didn’t get any worse I would not quit. Deusi said that it would only start getting dangerous after puking for the second time – wow - what a sensitive guy!

And then I started thinking. Thinking about the four more hours it would take to make it to the summit. At that moment I was sure that I was not going to make it - but could I give up and surrender. I didn’t want to disappoint myself  - no, that wouldn’t have been the worst part of it -  I didn’t want to disappoint Tina. We had made a pact to start together and to quit together.  Was I to destroy everything? Tina who had had so many doubts of making it was in front of me, climbing like hell. So I had to – no I wanted to go on – but could I…

Walking – standing still - walking, until that wasn’t enough for me – I had to sit down, rest. It was almost 5 am. Tina sat down beside me and almost fell asleep. It was very cold and she was tired – thank God only tired! I told her to walk onwards. Deusi told us that it wasn’t far to go anymore and asked me how I was feeling. Unchanged, although I had gotten a headache by then, too. What soothed my mind was the fact that I was able to eat and drink without getting sick.

Tina was walking with Deusi about 50 meters ahead of me. She was swaying herself. And then all of a sudden they stopped – why? I caught up with them and Tina said, “ We made it!” “What, how?” We had arrived at Stella Point just shortly after 5 am. The ascent is said to be achieved at this point although the actual summit is still 150 meters higher. I couldn’t believe it. We hugged each other and the first thing I actually said was, “Now we’ll make it to the top won’t we?!” “Of course we will!” We met Irmela at Stella Point. Her guide gave us some tea and I gave my last muesli bars away – it was so cool yet still unbelievable.

So we walked onwards through snow covered paths towardsUhuru Peak. At 6:15 am after climbing for 5:50 hours we had reachedUhuru Peak together - hand in hand. We both had had the willpower and Tina the strength, which she passed on to me, so that giving up was never an option. Without Tina I guess I would have turned around more than 100 times...

For each other – With each other

The sun had risen and we met Marco, his girlfriend and his daughter – the promise had been kept! "I'm free!" Having minus 10° C  was giving me a hard time taking pictures (my fingers were freezing!), but who in this entire world cared anyway? We had all achieved our goal, although I guess none of us could comprehend at the moment what we had just done.

Uhuru Peak 5896 m

Kersten Gletscher

And then we started our descent. Tina was totally worn out and because of the cold didn’t have any feeling in her finger and toe tips. I had a bad headache which I probably had forgotten for being so joyful just minutes earlier. I picked up my backpack from my porter – I didn’t want him to carry it downwards. The descent was steep but I didn’t care at all!

Stella Point 5745 m

After two hours of sliding downwards – it was about 9 am – we arrived back atCamp Barafu. The crew was so happy that we had made it to the top and congratulated us – we were totally dead – our feet hurt like hell! I fell asleep immediately and Tina dozed. Deusi woke us up at noon – we still had to descend down to 3100 meters today!

We started walking at 12:30 pm going steeply downwards toCamp Mweka. We were still dead – the extremely strenuous ascent and having had almost no sleep – quite a bit more than working a night shift…

Immediately after arriving in the rain forest it started to hail. But well, who cared…

We were more than glad to arrive atCamp Mweka. The sun was shining and everything was ok. The camp was like a campsite – not so cool, too many “ordinary tourists”. We met Irmela again who had descended from the summit without taking a break. She had to go very slowly because her knees weren’t used to the strain.

Well, then it rained again. We had some popcorn and drank some coffee, which we hadn’t done for the last two days because of the caffeine. We played 20up until dinner. We again had a vegetable stew and then went into our tent – the last night in our tent (FOREVER!!!) – yippee! We granted ourselves a nice shot of whiskey and fell asleep – dead and gone. I guess I don’t have to mention it but I have to just the same – I again got very cold at night...

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